Cooling fan assembly capable of adjusting air flow direction

ABSTRACT

A cooling fan assembly includes a base, a dial knob and a blade wheel. The base provides a shape of channel and having a hollow part with an annular rail. The dial knob is received in and joined to the hollow part and provides a plurality of projections at the circumferential wall thereof to fit with the annular rail with at least an air discharge hole at the circumferential wall thereof. The blade wheel is mounted in the base. The dial knob can be turned to adjust direction of discharged air flow. Hence, the discharged air can move toward other chip sets in addition to dissipating heat of the chip processor under the cooling fin such that a single radiating structure can cool both the chip processor and the other chip sets.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention is related to a cooling fan assembly capable of adjusting air flow direction and particularly to a cooling fan assembly, which is mounted to a cooling fin set to perform heat dissipation with an rotationally adjustable device for regulating direction of discharged air so as to cool other chip sets at near end.

2. Brief Description of the Related Art

In order to dissipate heat of the computer system or lower down temperature of the computer system, many ways such as using metal sheet, cooling fins, cooling fans and various intake and outgoing air slots have been utilized for effectively controlling temperature of the computer system and maintaining steady running of the computer system. Different sized chip processors frequently produce heat in the computer system and the cooling fins pressing down on the chip processors for removing heat generated from chip processors have been developed well and popularly used currently.

There are typical examples of the cooling fins being fixedly attached to the chip processors such as Taiwanese Patent Official Gazette Nos. 356,263 (Application No. 87,200,769), 453,472(Application No. 88,220,189), M242755 (Application No. 90,213,401), M242,756 (Application No. 90,218,045), 537,429 (Application No. 91,203,000), 511,882 (Application No. 91,200,680) and 560838 (Application No. 92,203,921).

Referring to FIG. 1, the preceding cited references are made with a single or a plurality of plates with good conductivity being joined together associated with transversely and longitudinally arranged cooling fins to absorb heat and heat exchange to the air for lower temperature of the chip processor. A cooling fan can be joined to the cooling fins to speed up the heat exchange between the cooling fins and the air dragged by the cooling fan.

The preceding way of cooling fan associated with the cooling fins for dissipating heat has been utilized for several decades. There are multiple cooling fan sets available for necessity of higher cooling performance such as Taiwanese Patent Official Gazette Nos. 585,302 (Application No. 91,213,002) and M242,770 (Application No. 92,217,811). Further, there are cooling fans with changing shape of the blades thereof for reinforcing swirling air flow such as Taiwanese Patent Official Gazette No. 580,164 (Application No. 90,220,412), 590,269 (Application No. 91,200,303), 572,258 (Application No. 91,218,213) and 595,763 (Application No. 92,205,772). In addition, there is filtering dust structure available for filtering dust in the air to reduce foreign substances adhering to the cooling fins so as to avoid heat dissipation effect being affected such as Taiwanese Patent Official Gazette No. M240,613 (Application No. 92,203,767).

However, the cooling fans in the preceding cited references are only for cooling a single chip processor and the auxiliary or smaller chips disposed around the chip processor are unable to be cooled.

Referring to FIG. 2, in order to dissipate heat form the auxiliary or smaller chips disposed around the chip processor, a heat dissipation structure associated with multiple cooling fans is provided on the system main board to allow the auxiliary or smaller chips around the chip processor being cooled substantially. But, mounting the multiple cooling fans on the system main board still has disadvantages in practice such as more room needed for the cooling fans in spite of limited space on the main board, more load burden to the power supplier and more power consumption cost needed for running the cooling fans, and more maintenance fees required for repairing or replacing the cooling fans.

Thus, how to develop an improved heat dissipation device of the computer system for cooling the preceding auxiliary or smaller chip sets under conditions of limited available space and power consumption is a subject worth to be cared.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The crux of the present invention is to provide a cooling fan assembly capable of adjusting air flow direction so that heat dissipation can be performed with an rotationally adjustable device for regulating direction of discharged air to cool chip sets in addition to the chip processor in a computer system.

Accordingly, the cooling fan assembly capable of adjusting air flow direction according to the present invention includes a base, a dial knob and a blade wheel. The base provides a shape of channel and having a hollow part with an annular rail. The turning disk provides projections to fit with an annular recess rail, which has an annular rib under the base member surrounding the circumference of the hollow part with a diameter slightly greater than the hollow part and slightly less than the diameter formed with the projections. Thus, the projections are pressed to pass through the annular rib before entering the annular recess rail such that the projections can be restricted in the annular recess rail. The circumferential wall of the turning knob has at least an air discharge hole for the air flow produced during the blade wheel rotating being able to move outward through the air discharge hole. The blade wheel is mounted in the base from the open side of the dial knob. The dial knob can be turned to adjust direction of discharged air flow. Hence, the discharged air can move toward other chip sets in addition to dissipating heat of the chip processor under the cooling fin such that a single radiating structure can cool both the chip processor and the other chip sets.

The cooling fan assembly capable of adjusting air flow direction according to the present invention further provides a high performance blade wheel, which has a circular side plate and a plurality of curved blades at the inner side of the circular side plate and a has circular ring at another sides thereof to reinforce the strength of the blade wheel. When the blade wheel rotates, the air is sucked into the blade wheel via inner space thereof and guided via the curved blades by way of centrifugal movement to increase the air flow and air pressure for increasing moving stroke of the discharged air flow.

The cooling fan assembly capable of adjusting air flow direction according to the present invention further provides a cured part at least at a lateral edge of the air hole for the air flow direction being micro-adjusted more accurately under guidance of the curved part.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The detail structure, the applied principle, the function and the effectiveness of the present invention can be more fully understood with reference to the following description and accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the conventional cooling fan assembly;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view illustrating the conventional cooling fans mounted on a main board;

FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view of a cooling fan assembly capable of adjusting air flow direction according to the present invention;

FIG. 4 is an assembled perspective view of the cooling fan assembly capable of adjusting air flow direction according to the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a side sectional view of the cooling fan assembly capable of adjusting air flow direction according to the present invention;

FIGS. 6 is a perspective view illustrating the cooling fan assembly capable of adjusting air flow direction according to the present invention being able to be turned;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view illustrating another embodiment of inner arrangement of the turning disk in the cooling fan assembly capable of adjusting air flow direction according to the present invention; and

FIG. 8 is a sectional view illustrating the cooling fan assembly capable of adjusting air flow direction of the present invention being mounted on a main board in a computer.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring to FIGS. 3 to 5, a cooling fan assembly capable of adjusting air flow direction according to the present invention comprises a base 10, a blade wheel 20 and a turning disk 30.

The base 10 is made of heat resistant material such as plastics and provides a channel shape with a top wall 11 and two lateral vertical walls 12. The top wall 11 provides threaded holes 111 for being passed through with fasteners X. The space under the top wall 11 and between the lateral walls 12 is secured with a cooling fin 40 by means of the fasteners X. In practice, the cooling fin 40 can be attached to a chip processor Y in a system as shown in FIG. 8.

The top wall 11 of the base member 10 has a hollow part 112 for receiving and joining the turning disk 30. It is preferable that the hollow part 112 can be a circular opening corresponding to a cylindrical shaped turning disk 30. The turning disk 30 provides projections 31 to fit with an annular recess rail 13, which has an annular rib 131 under the base member 10 surrounding the circumference of the hollow part 112 with a diameter slightly greater than the hollow part 112 and slightly less than the diameter formed with the projections 31. Thus, the projections 31 are pressed to pass through the annular rib 131 before entering the annular recess rail 13 such that the projections 31 can be restricted in the annular recess rail 13. In this way, the operator can turn the turning disk 30 to adjust the direction by way of movable relation between the projections 31 and the annular recess rail 13 as shown in FIG. 6.

Besides, the turning disk 30 provides a shape of basin with a diameter thereof diverging from the top to the bottom thereof gradually and has close top with the inner side thereof having a central armature set 32 and has an open bottom for being mounted with the blade wheel 20. Further, the annular wall of the turning disk 30 at least has an air hole 33 to discharge the air created by the fan during running.

The blade wheel 20 has a circular side plate 21 and a plurality of curved blades 22 at the inner side of the circular side plate 21. The blades 22 further join a circular ring 221 at another sides thereof to reinforce the strength of the blade wheel 20. When the blade wheel 20 rotates, the air is sucked into the blade wheel via inner space thereof and guided via the curved blades 22 by way of centrifugal movement so that the discharged air can obtain a higher moving stroke due to increased air flow and air pressure.

Referring to FIG. 7, a vertical surface 35 formed from an end of the inner side of the air hole 33 along with circumferential wall of the dial knob 30 to another end of the air hole 33 has a gradually raised area to result in a greater clearance between a side of the air hole 33 and the blade wheel 20 and a less clearance between another side of the air hole 33 and the blade wheel 20. Thus, the air flow between the blades 22 and the circumferential wall of the turning disk 30 can be compressed due to the clearance getting smaller to increase instantaneous impulse of the air flowing toward the air hole 33 for facilitating air being discharged outward.

Referring to FIG. 8, the periphery of the air hole 33 at least at a lateral edge thereof has a curved part 331 capable of micro adjusting the air flow direction. The curved part 331 provides an angular distance bending outward. Hence, the air spray angle of the turning disk can be more accurate due to being guided with the circular part.

Referring to FIG. 6 in company with FIG. 3, the outer side of the circumferential wall of the dial knob 30 provides a regularly or irregularly continuous uneven shape to constitute a gripped part 34 to enhance rotation of the turning disk 30 during being operated by a hand.

Referring to FIGS. 6 and 8 again, when the turning disk 30 is rotated, the discharged air can move toward other chip set Z in addition to dissipating heat of the chip processor Y under the cooling fin 40 such that a single radiating structure can cool both the chip processor and the other chip set to overcome deficiencies resided in the traditional radiation device.

While the invention has been described with referencing to preferred embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that modifications or variations may be easily made without departing from the spirit of this invention, which is defined by the appended claims. 

1. A cooling fan assembly capable of adjusting air flow direction, comprising: a base, providing a shape of channel and having a hollow part with an annular rail; a dial knob, being received and joined to the hollow part, providing a plurality of projections at the circumferential wall thereof to fit with the annular rail and having at least an air discharge hole at the circumferential wall; and a blade wheel, being mounted in the base; whereby, the dial knob can be turned to adjust direction of discharged air flow.
 2. The cooling fan assembly capable of adjusting air flow direction as defined in claim 1, wherein the base is made of heat resistant material and provides a plurality of threaded holes and a cooling fin set below the base is attached to the base.
 3. The cooling fan assembly capable of adjusting air flow direction as defined in claim 1, wherein an annular rib is disposed at the bottom side of the hollow part with a circumference slightly greater than the hollow part and slightly less than the circumference formed with the projections so that the dial knob fits with the recess rail by a pressing force.
 4. The cooling fan assembly capable of adjusting air flow direction as defined in claim 1, wherein the hollow part has a shape corresponding to the dial knob.
 5. The cooling fan assembly capable of adjusting air flow direction as defined in claim 1, wherein the dial knob has a shape diverging downward from a close top thereof with an armature being disposed at the inner side of the close top and has an open bottom for receiving the blade wheel.
 6. The cooling fan assembly capable of adjusting air flow direction as defined in claim 1, wherein the inner side of the air hole has a gradually raised area from an end thereof along with the circumferential wall of the dial knob to another end of the air hole so that the air flow between blades of the blade wheel and the circumferential wall of the inner side of the dial knob can be compressed due to the clearance getting smaller and increasing instantaneous impulse.
 7. The cooling fan assembly capable of adjusting air flow direction as defined in claim 1, wherein the periphery of the air hole at least at a lateral edge thereof has a curved part assisting adjustment of the air flow direction and the curved part provides an angular distance bending outward to allow air spray angle of the dial knob can be more accurate due to being guided with the curved part.
 8. The cooling fan assembly capable of adjusting air flow direction as defined in claim 1, wherein the outer side of the circumferential wall of the dial knob provides a regularly or irregularly continuous uneven shape to constitute a gripped part.
 9. The cooling fan assembly capable of adjusting air flow direction as defined in claim 1, wherein blade wheel has a circular side plate and a plurality of curved blades the inner side of the circular side plate and when the blade wheel rotates, the air is sucked into the blade wheel via inner space thereof and guided via the curved blades by way of centrifugal movement.
 10. The cooling fan assembly capable of adjusting air flow direction as defined in claim 1, wherein the blades further join a circular ring at another sides thereof to reinforce the strength of the blade wheel.
 11. The cooling fan assembly capable of adjusting air flow direction as defined in claim 5, wherein the inner side of the air hole has a gradually raised area from an end thereof along with the circumferential wall of the dial knob to another end of the air hole so that the air flow between blades of the blade wheel and the circumferential wall of the inner side of the dial knob can be compressed due to the clearance getting smaller and increasing instantaneous impulse.
 12. The cooling fan assembly capable of adjusting air flow direction as defined in claim 5, wherein the periphery of the air hole at least at a lateral edge thereof has a curved part assisting adjustment of the air flow direction and the curved part provides an angular distance bending outward to allow air spray angle of the dial knob can be more accurate due to being guided with the curved part.
 13. The cooling fan assembly capable of adjusting air flow direction as defined in claim 5, wherein the outer side of the circumferential wall of the dial knob provides a regularly or irregularly continuous uneven shape to constitute a gripped part. 